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Can’t see it? Neither can I! Under all that foliage is St. Andrew’s Church in Bircham Tofts, England. It was abandoned in the 19th century when parishes were consolidated, but you can still get in, if you know how. There are photos of the interior stonework as well as more exterior shots at Urban Ghosts. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Gary Troughton)
Urban explorers and photographers have a tendency to keep exact locations a secret, but somewhere in Spain lies a porcelain doll factory that was abandoned decades ago. The business was dropped in a hurry, it seems, as many half-made dolls and doll-making equipment was left behind to decay. See a collection of photographs from inside, and read about the history of the porcelain doll business at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image source: Abandonalia)
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Urban exploration takes a turn toward the world’s oldest profession! Take a tour -safely- through a photo gallery of bygone houses of ill repute in Spain, South Korea, and the USA. The outsides may look plain, but the inside pictures display a decaying gaudiness that tells the story of what once went on in these businesses. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Jitze Couperus)
From the beaches of Thailand to the deserts of the U.S, for a variety of reasons, some very expensive vacation resorts were deemed a loss, and no longer worth the trouble of upkeep. Years later, the photographs fascinate by illustrating their falls from grace. Environmental Graffiti shows us places that were once luxurioius playgrounds for tourists and celebrities, but are now being reclaimed by nature. Shown is a resort in Famagusta, Cyprus, which was permanently emptied when Turkey invaded in 1974. Link
(Image credit: Julienbzh35)
Fans of abandoned places and urban exploration are in for a treat, with a look at an aircraft graveyard at Vozdvizhenka air base in the Primorsky Krai region of eastern Russia, just 40 miles from the Chinese border. There is no security to stop urban explorers, just the aircraft sitting unused, with grass growing under them and nature doing its best to reclaim the base. See more pictures at UrbanGhosts. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Maks Maydachenco)
On a hill called Teufelsberg (Devil’s Mountain) near Berlin, an abandoned facility complete with “radar domes” stands. It was once used as a listening station for the US to intercept Soviet communications, and then abandoned when West and East Berlin were reunited. It was built over top the remains of a Nazi war college. Exploring this station is difficult, as it is deteriorating. One of the dangers is an open 10-story elevator shaft! See a set of pictures at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Nate Bolt)
Environmental Graffiti has a gallery of images from an underground crypt in Belgium. It was used for burials for decades, but maintenance was discontinued because of the expense. After years of decay, access to the crypt was closed for safety reasons. But you can see it still. Photographer and urban explorer Sven Fennema takes you on an underground tour with fascinating pictures from his book Anderswelten (Other Worlds).
“The air was very cold and wet, and you could see your every breath – also an experience I will never forget. It was as if death was close beside you somehow. The crypt was full of those strange plastic flowers – still with their bright colors – but it was also full of spiders’ webs and other kinds of decay.”
(Image credit: Sven Fennema)
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Abandoned places can be creepy. Morgues are always creepy to most people. Put them together, and you’ve got some really creepy places -and even more so when you know their history. Environmental Graffiti has a photo collection of abandoned morgues in hospitals, asylums, municipalities, military bases, and even this one from Ellis Island. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Vilseskogen)
The Mothball Fleet is the group of decommissioned Navy ships stored at Suisun Bay, just north of San Francisco. These ships served in conflicts going back to World War II, and now they are gradually being scrapped. Photographer Scott Haefner and friends managed to spend several days exploring and photographing these ships, despite security guards. Read about how they pulled off the caper, and see the collection of photos at Scott’s website. Link -via the Presurfer
Haikyo is a Japanese word for abandoned ruins. Michael Gakuran explored an abandoned home in Japan some call the Royal House, possibly because among the contents are pre-war portraits of the Japanese Emperor and the Royal family.
In pre-WWII Japan, the Emperor was still revered as a living deity and to look upon him was thought of as an immense privilege. Distribution of the Imperial Family Portraits was not compulsory and schools had to petition to the Ministry in order to receive one, which was usually granted on grounds of academic excellence. Because the official portraits were on loan from the Imperial Household Ministry, protecting the picture from harm was deemed of utmost importance. Having the picture lost or damaged, even from natural disasters like fires or earthquakes, was seen as such a serious failure of duty that there were incidents of school officials committing suicide in an act of repentance.
There are plenty of pictures of the house and contents, but Gakuran has many more photographs he did not publish because of the fine line between documenting history and invading the former occupant’s privacy. Link -via Metafilter
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Urban explorer Kyle Merriman, who brought us pictures of Nara Dreamland, has a new collection of photographs from an abandoned hospital in Tainan, Taiwan.
As we entered it was clear we weren’t the first visitors it had received. Prescription drugs, lay scattered across tables and floors, while others remained unopened. Broken syringes crunched underfoot and bottles of formaldehyde still kept their mysterious contents. The wind followed us inside, slamming random doors and causing the peeling wallpaper to dance. It was a spooky place to say the least.
Kyle Merriman recently visited Nara Dreamland, the abandoned Disneyland knockoff theme park in Nara, Japan that was built in 1961 and closed in 2006. He found it to be fairly intact, except for the fact that there are no people there and the weeds have grown everywhere. See the state of the park in a gallery of 56 photographs. Link
Previously at Neatorama: Nara Dreamland, an Alternate Universe Disneyland
For over 70 years, an historic building at 5 Beekman Street has been shuttered from the public. The beautiful brick and terra cotta building, built in 1882, sports twin towers and a nine-story atrium with wrought iron ceilings and balconies. Scouting NY takes a rare tour of this strangely empty building in an area where every square foot of business or living space brings astronomical prices.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
You’ve heard of war bunkers and subways and fallout shelters, but this list of hidden places has more than I ever knew about, like how Seattle created an underground level in one fell swoop.
The Great Seattle Fire of 1889 put an end to the first Seattle, with civic leaders making two important decisions. The first was a building ordinance specifying that all new constructions must be of brick or masonry. The second was to elevate the new city above the tideflats, effectively turning the second story of buildings into the new ground floor. Shop-keeps quickly rebuilt, and sidewalks and streets were planted one story higher than before, creating underground passageways lined with the original storefronts.
There are 15 other places and stories as well at Nile Guide. Link -via Holy Kaw!
(Image source: Sights in Seattle)
The new owner of a former garment factory building recently unearthed a pair of manually-operated bowling lanes in his basement. The lanes are in very good condition, considering it’s been many years since they’ve seen action. After research into the property, the owner believes the basement was a secret club during Prohibition!
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by
A few years ago, in dense woodland a few miles from my home, I discovered a caravan. Encircled by trees and undergrowth, and over a mile from the nearest road, its presence was utterly incongruous, with few clues as to how or why it had come to rest at this point. For almost a year, I kept my distance, fearful it was inhabited by a hermit and that I would be chased away if I ventured too close. Eventually, I investigated further and discovered that it was empty; its furnishings intact, but no sign of human inhabitants.
That’s only the beginning of the story. After many visits, he discover there was another visitor to the caravan, and they begin leaving notes for each other. Link -via Metafilter
In the 18th centuary, when the cemateries of Paris ran out of space for the dead, the city began to store the bodies in vast underground catacombs.
These days Paris catacombs are no longer used. The city does offer tours, but only around a small area of these expansive underground tunnels.
That’s not good enough for these inquisitive photographers known as Urban Explorers. They headed off the beaten track to take a look around the areas that most tourists never see.
Check out their stunning photos of a world that many people don’t even realise they’re standing right above.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Jake.
Photo: Second City Warehouse [Flickr]
Neatorama reader lir wrote an interesting account of the abandoned Uptown Theatre in Chicago. The ornate theater, the second largest in the United States, has been abandoned and boarded up since 1980 because the high cost of upkeep and repair:
The theatre is called the Uptown Theatre. It was built by Balaban and Katz, a company started by four Chicagoans who built, owned and operated dozens of theatres and movie palaces from the 1920′s to the 1970′s. It was designed in a Spanish Baroque style by Rapp and Rapp – the same who built the Chicago Theatre on State Street four years before. It was built in 1925 with 4,381 seats (only the Radio City Music Hall is larger), a five story main lobby and two other side lobbies, an eight story facade, a large Wurlitzer organ, and millions worth of marble statuary and oil paintings. Silent films with full orchestras were the original entertainment at the theatre, but since its opening the theatre has been a stage for musicals, concerts, television shows, company meetings…
Unfortunately, due to the less then perfect reputation the area has had for a while, the cost of upkeep, its size, and from competition with the Riviera and Aragon, the Uptown started to sell off parts of itself, starting with the organ, and continuing with much of the interior decorations to pay for the care of the place. In the 1970′s, the Uptown was used as a large concert venue, with evidently a very memorable show by Bruce Springsteen taking place there in 1980. It was about this time that the theatre was sold, boarded up, and while plans with what exactly to use the massive ornately archaic and deteriorating structure for were being formed, water pipes froze and burst inside, causing severe damage. (Source)
Undercity.org, a website dedicated to exploration of abandoned and hidden urban sites, has a fascinating gallery of the Uptown Theatre: Link | Uptown Theatre photoset at Flickr by Second City Warehouse
